TRIPS, TIPS & DEALS. DEAL FOR REAL.

Altar-ed States

August 27, 2000|By Toni Stroud/Tribune Staff Writer.

You know it's not the same old cattle drive when a youthful deity swipes the cowgirls' clothing as they're bathing in the river. That's just one of many Hindu stories about the playful Krishna and his exploits in and around Mathura and Vrindavan. These twin cities of India are just an hour's drive from bustling Agra and the Taj Mahal. And all of those places are part of Deepak Chopra's Nov. 1-8 spiritual journey, "How to Know God." The $2,650 program includes lodging at Agra's Jaypee Palace Hotel; all meals; group meditations, yoga and sacred ceremonies; programs led by Deepak Chopra and his faculty; and tours of the Taj Mahal, Mathura and Vrindavan with an English-speaking guide. The schedule allows for some free time for shopping and sightseeing..(888-424-6772; or at www.chopra.com)

TWEET RETREAT

Yes, there really is a wildlife photographer named Moose Peterson, and he'll be one of the pros heading workshops and field trips at the Nikon School of Birding and Birding Photography at Horicon Marsh National Wildlife Refuge in Wisconsin. The Sept. 22-24 seminar, near Fond du Lac, costs $75. You'll pay extra for lodging and for transportation, such as boats and bicycles, on some field trips. (800-BIRDING; or at www.1800birding.com)

WHAT'S AFOOT

This may be a slightly indelicate subject, but there are no portable toilets on the 5-mile-long Mackinac Bridge. So our slightly indelicate advice is that you take care of business before setting off on the Mackinac Bridge Walk, Labor Day, Sept. 4. There's no registration fee for the one-way trek that begins in St. Ignace, on Michigan's Upper Peninsula, and ends in Mackinaw City, on the Lower Peninsula. Trust us, you'll want the $2 ticket for the bus that will take you from Mackinaw City to St. Ignace, either to commence the walk or return you afterward. An incentive for finishing the walk: a certificate that may be worth a prize if its number matches one in shop windows at either end of the bridge. (800-338-6660; or at www.michigan.org)

FREE STUFF

For the price of a deeded parking space in downtown Chicago, you can spend a week in the 5-bedroom, 5 1/2-bath Villa La Calanque overlooking Marigot Bay. Sure, it'll set you back $18,750-$22,650, and your chauffeur won't have a decent place to park the Bentley when you get home. But these Caribbean digs come with their own pool and outdoor tiki bar. Try that in a concrete garage! This villa is just one of more than 120 private rental homes listed, along with color photos, in St. Barth Dream Vacations. Hey, it doesn't cost to look. (800-421-3396; or at www.stbarth.com) . . . Unless you're a die-hard Texan (is there any other kind?), you may never have heard of oil-boom towns like Ranger or know that Abilene emerged as a ranch-and-rail center only after Ft. Phantom Hill burned down. That fort, by the way, is one of several mapped out in the Texas Forts Trail brochure, which also shows how to visit what remains of Ft. Concho, Ft. McKavett, Ft. Griffin and a bunch of towns non-Texans have never heard of. (800-375-1206; or at www.thc.state.tx.us)